Offender captured days after escaping a Hyde County prison

SWAN QUARTER, N.C. (WTVD) -- A man who escaped a minimum-custody correctional center in Hyde County was recaptured days after he slipped away.

The North Carolina Department of Adult Correction said Francisco Cardenas, 32, escaped from the Hyde Correctional Center in Swan Quarter on Thursday. He was captured Monday evening while walking along US 264 East near Swan Quarter.

Cardenas was serving a five-to-eight-year sentence for drug trafficking after a conviction in Lee County. He was scheduled to be released in January 2029.

Now, he will be charged with felony escape and be housed in a higher custody level, the Department of Adult Correction said.